Since 2008, we have worked with the Afghan Ministry of Education to build capacity for OLPC in Afghanistan. The initial pilots over the past year have been with 4th-6th grade students, in MOE schools and community-based education groups.

OLPC has committed 5,000 laptops to pilots throughout the country, starting with Esteqlal High School in Nangarhar Province’s Jalalabad city. There the program engaged all fourth, fifth and sixth grade students, with a '3 phase implementation model' (below) used by the ministry.

The next project involved five schools in Kabul city. Initial feedback has unfortunately only been measured in terms of standardized test results (in math and literacy), but initial results showed a 20% increase on those tests.
In the coming months, national team plans to include schools in other provinces. They also aim to recruit and train more technical people to help with planning and preparing teachers and connectivity teams for schools across the country.

Comments

Lauren (not verified) says: Seems like these laptops are being given only to the boys in Afghanistan. Girls need laptops too. July 8, 2010 at 1 am

sj (not verified) says: Lauren, the laptops are being given to boys and girls equally. Early education for girls, and for children in very rural areas, is one of our priorities. Many classes in Afghanistan are single-gender, so all children in one class will be boys, and all in another will be girls. July 23, 2010 at 12 pm